Brave
by Meow the Unicorn
Summary: A dare from a friend of mine. Lockheart x Neville. Though I am not a fan of that pairing, I think it is one of the better things I have written. Don t like, don t read. Rated K for harmless kissing


_Brave_

Neville Longbottom had never been popular. In fact, everything he did seemed to end up wrong. At least the really important things. They always ended up _really bad. _It was not like he had never been in love before; he had. With the sleeping boy he was watching at this moment, actually. But that had changed. Neville was not a stalker. The only reason he was watching his friend sleeping, was because they cheered the same dormitory. Mr. Longbottom was a wizard, you see, and not a very good one either. Nothing, compared to the scar-headed wonder he was watching now, anyways. Neville looked downwards instead. He was tall, but also quite chubby. He didn't like the way he looked the least, but he was simply to lazy to change his way of being. It was not like he couldn't see his toes or anything, so it was fine, he thought. It wasn't like he would never find anyone who would like him for who he was... Was it?

Neville was an unlucky boy. He screwed up at school, and got yelled at a lot by his grandmother (Neville`s parents were at St. Mungos), but the worst things happened when Neville was _in love_. As mentioned before, the brown haired boy fell in love with rather strange people. The boy who lived, for one, but also others. He wasn't always sure if he was in love, or just thought someone was friendly and wanted to be their friend. Neville didn't have many friends. But this wasn`t that much of a problem, really, as he never dared to do anything. Although he was a Gryffindor, he often felt like the greatest coward that ever was. He was twelve and hadn't even gotten his first kiss yet!

At least, not until tonight.

It was Neville`s second year at Hogwarts, and they had gotten a new Defence against the dark arts teacher, as the previous one.. well, had turned to stone and disappeared when Harry touched his face.

It seemed rather humoristic, when you thought of it that way, but Neville would assure that it was nothing funny about it.

And of course, their new teacher was no other than the famous Gilderoy Lockheart. Neville could but smile at the thoughts of golden, curly locks and a smile who made all the girls week in the knees. The girls and Neville, that was. He had never found himself attracted to someone older than him, but then again, he had never cared much about age, or even thought about it. He knew he liked guys, at least for now. He smiled sadly by himself. There was no «at least by now,» just himself trying to convince himself of being more normal than he was. Damn it, he was an outsider enough as it was, he didn't need this in addition.

He sighed. Their new teacher was just amazing. He had read all of his books, also those they didn't need for his classes, payed by Neville`s own money. He just found it so exiting reading about all the things he had accomplished in his life. He was not _that_ old, after all, Neville thought. Though, he was not stupid. He knew that everyone would find their new exotic teacher far to old for him, but still, a boy could dream.

Oh, if it had only ended with the dream.

This afternoon the fantastic professor who could be resembled with a Greek god, gave Neville detention with him for setting the grindeloup on fire when they where examining it. Though, it still looked like it was Lockheart himself who had set fire to the creature without focusing, instead of the twelve year old. But this was beside the point. Neville would love to take a bullet for his teacher anytime, and also, detention alone with the famous author was a bliss.

He had helped his new crush with writing autographs, still it seemed like all Lockheart could speak of was Harry, as though he was obsessed with him. Neville had only smiled and nodded at what he said, writing as pretty as he could, altough he would never have a pretty enough handwriting to ever compare with the man with the golden locks. All the talk about Harry had made him jealous, but he just smiled back whenever the mad flashed him a look of his pearly-whites. Nevilles own teeth was irregular, and slightly discoloured by the amount of soda he drank.

At the end of his detention, Lockheart had walked him to the door of his office, something that was probably a normal gesture for the older man, but for Neville it just made him feel special. And then, Neville had gathered all his courage and kissed the man on the cheek, before leaving with a crocked smile and a «Goodbye, professor,»

Lockheart had looked rather startled when he had kissed his golden cheek, but Neville didn't know what had happened next, since he had no intention in looking back.

The next day he would have DADA with him, and it would probably be awkward no matter what happened, but Neville only felt happy and proud.

He finally felt brave.


End file.
